The Obliging Wench Tavern - OOC Chat

[Ceberskie]

14 minutes ago, Warning said:

Wait... A werewolf being an elf? *confused* That miiight not work. I think I see the actual wolf definition here being more or less druid-ish. So no actual furry creatures. I had to google warg to make sure and the result I got was "just a literal wolf in norse mythology". Which made me thing "I could just literally be a wolf like Fenrir." But I don't think it's that easy. XD

So the elves in this setting are very in touch with nature so much so they can slowly take on more animalistic features and eventually be some degree of furry they want. From cat girls to your fonfon. 

The human wargs try to do something similar but they can't control it so they just end up becoming possessed by spirits that send them into berserker rages and they become werewolves/bears/whatever.

16 minutes ago, AsBloodTurnsEverCold said:

 

To be honest that would fit perfectly with the character I imagined so I would definitely press you on that more.

I very much had an idea for a monk, sort of in tune with nature...raised with beasts cause its how her sect would work and that would be a reason she's a bit unorthodox but wasn't sure if that'd fit with whats up now, but what you just said helps i

It's not going to have a far eastern aesthetic but that idea lines up well with this settings druids. These are Disney princess singing with the birds and wearing skirts made of leaves and flowers. These are running through the woods naked with a pack of wolves growing claws and mauling people like viking-esk war priests....That also happen to enjoy singing with the birds...

[Warning]

Very interesting, though. I just dunno if I have a character that would fit the descriptions of those races and powers. (Dark elf having no magic eliminates Foless too) BUT it's okay. I will actually take a deep moment to read the lorepedia and maybe find something out of it even if I have to try to poke for ideas from a generator. The descriptions are detailed enough that it could lead me somewhere. I didn't plan to rush anyhow and I am in no haste to make a character first. I might even wait to see what ideas people go with.

[Ceberskie]

If they don't fit its all good. If you want you can DM me with what you're hoping to find and we'll see if we can find a way to make it fit. The Kaladrim region is the largest part of the map and is meant to allow for all sorts of ambiguous nonsense to exist. The whole setting has lots of gaps and ambiguity on purpose to allow people to develop their own niche.

Edited August 6 by Ceberskie

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

1 hour ago, Ceberskie said:

It's not going to have a far eastern aesthetic but that idea lines up well with this settings druids. These are Disney princess singing with the birds and wearing skirts made of leaves and flowers. These are running through the woods naked with a pack of wolves growing claws and mauling people like viking-esk war priests....

That's the second option I was considering among the others too! Or seeing how much the idea can be played with.

I do like that Red Wastes idea too as an explanation for their nature. 

Really already thinking a lot about what can be done with the info presented.

[Mysthero]

-peeks around corner-

[Rob4ix]

I have read character creation and i will be very direct, i think there should be one more "factor" on character creation, because now it really support making specialist characters, because character would be needed to spend points on making generic traits just to be able to have 2 out of 3 dice for a roll in a system, so character will have to dance around traits to gain more than 2 dice.

So i have a suggestion, make all traits and stats d4 by default and you just raise level of dice with those points.

And also add a little something i got in mind - specialities

Specialities work similar way to skills in FATE core, where there is a small list of things character could do and you just assign a small pool of dice to those.

The specialies list could be:

Harm (Cause problems), Help (Assist or Protect from problems), Create (Make or Disarm), Think (Investigate, Solve, Remember), Focus (Cast magic, Do something with precision and carefulness), Avoid (Dodge and Hide), Talk (Persuade and intermediate)

 

P.S. Basically skills from a bunch of RPG, just there is a hierarchy of them, where the higher the skills, the lesser amount of high skills there is.

P.P.S. I also think items could also give some dice to rolls, like cloak or smokebomb adding d6 to a roll where you try to hide.

Edited August 6 by Rob4ix

[Ceberskie]

3 hours ago, Rob4ix said:

I have read character creation and i will be very direct, i think there should be one more "factor" on character creation, because now it really support making specialist characters, because character would be needed to spend points on making generic traits just to be able to have 2 out of 3 dice for a roll in a system, so character will have to dance around traits to gain more than 2 dice.

So i have a suggestion, make all traits and stats d4 by default and you just raise level of dice with those points.

And also add a little something i got in mind - specialities

Specialities work similar way to skills in FATE core, where there is a small list of things character could do and you just assign a small pool of dice to those.

The specialies list could be:

Harm (Cause problems), Help (Assist or Protect from problems), Create (Make or Disarm), Think (Investigate, Solve, Remember), Focus (Cast magic, Do something with precision and carefulness), Avoid (Dodge and Hide), Talk (Persuade and intermediate)

 

P.S. Basically skills from a bunch of RPG, just there is a hierarchy of them, where the higher the skills, the lesser amount of high skills there is.

P.P.S. I also think items could also give some dice to rolls, like cloak or smokebomb adding d6 to a roll where you try to hide.

Yes there's still alot of work to do with the rules to flesh it out. But yes specialties is something I had thought of as well as characters but then as the rest of your traits and modifiers start adding up this list of possible dice to choose from could get VERY long so I'm still working to strike a good balance I suppose.

Pljs characters will gain more vocations and traits overtime as they play. And in character creation there will be other traits you can add to modify your character based on their personality and physiology. LOTS of writing left to do lol

Edited August 6 by Ceberskie

[Rob4ix]

1 hour ago, Ceberskie said:

Yes there's still alot of work to do with the rules to flesh it out. But yes specialties is something I had thought of as well as characters but then as the rest of your traits and modifiers start adding up this list of possible dice to choose from could get VERY long so I'm still working to strike a good balance I suppose.

Pljs characters will gain more vocations and traits overtime as they play. And in character creation there will be other traits you can add to modify your character based on their personality and physiology. LOTS of writing left to do lol

I understand, but its just a thing i have noticed, i personally see traits as traits, like, a thing not everyone has or can do, plus specialities are kinda made so no matter what you do you always have at least 2 dice, because cortex rolls need at least 2 to work

[Rob4ix]

When i look at the character creation plus specialities, i think it does strike a perfect balance of sort, because, when i think about it, the most basic action, like punching a character, is physical + harm + according traits or items, which, if you dont have the last two, is straight forward for those who wanna play ttrpgs, you may not agree, but i do analyze alot of ttrpgs and ttrpg design, and if there is at least 2 dice needed for a roll, i think attributes + specialities (tho fitting name would probably be "skills" or "Aspects") is simple enough, because its both character's passive ability to do something (attributes) plus active ability to do something (specialities), and traits with items just enhance or reduce the ability to do things

[Ceberskie]

You seem to have played cortex before and I certainly don't disagree. What was posted was more meant for character creation. Is that something you think we can incorporate into char creation? Or is it something derived from those initial backgrounds and vocational traits and associated skills? Or do you have another idea?

[Rob4ix]

11 minutes ago, Ceberskie said:

You seem to have played cortex before and I certainly don't disagree. What was posted was more meant for character creation. Is that something you think we can incorporate into char creation? Or is it something derived from those initial backgrounds and vocational traits and associated skills? Or do you have another idea?

I think skills could be up to player to assign, just as long as it doesnt contradict or make some sort of sense for backstory, in fate core, you assign skills yourself, in a pyramid, except +6, +4, etc, you assign d12, d10, etc.

Also its a thing i think should be at the character creation, because the whole thing is kinda meant to be like "i can do this good, and i can do that good too" and works from the very start, because if you put it later, then the moment before that is gonna ruin the whole game literally.

Edited August 6 by Rob4ix

[Ceberskie]

Yes this. I think thr lack of a easy to use layout like this is a big weakness of cortex at least for someone who visualizes info like I do. I like the skill pyramid especially in regards to using skills as broad concepts and letting people use that to guide how they work interact and fight with other characters.

[Rob4ix]

7 minutes ago, Ceberskie said:

Yes this. I think thr lack of a easy to use layout like this is a big weakness of cortex at least for someone who visualizes info like I do. I like the skill pyramid especially in regards to using skills as broad concepts and letting people use that to guide how they work interact and fight with other characters.

I agree, tho, i honestly just realized, cortex isnt really a rock solid system, in reality its extremely fluid, lile gow it doesnt have set stats, skills, and other stuff, just how you roll and some other knick knacks around rolls. There are alot of sheets for cortex and alot of ways to play cortex, so its kinda makes sense that there are sheets that dont have something.

If i remember correctly, i named 8 skills

So i think maybe the layout for skills could be like

d10 Harm

d8 Help, Avoid

d6 Talk, Create, Focus, Think

Or maybe just

d10 harm,

d8 help

d6 avoid, create

 

Edited August 6 by Rob4ix

[Ceberskie]

And when you say harm you mean attack? In whatever form the character is able to?

Edited August 6 by Ceberskie

[IsabellaRose]

Cortex has Skills just like Fate. You'd want to edit the default, but this is straight from the Prime Handbook:

 

Skills

Skills represent natural talent, training, or experience. If you can describe it as a verb, it’s a good candidate for a skill. The default skill list for Cortex Prime consists of verbs.

When to Use Skills

Because it’s so easy to describe characters in roleplaying games by what they can do and how they’re trained, skills are a natural trait set to include in a Cortex Prime game. If you aren’t using skills, you’re probably either focused more on dramatic flavor or you’ve got a similar kind of trait such as roles or specialties, which work a lot like skills.

Although you can and should create a skill list for your game based on the genre and sorts of activities you expect to be common in the game’s world, the default list is provided as a baseline.

Note how they’re all framed as verbs, to make it easier to imagine when you’d use them.

• Craft: Crafting things, includes building, assembling, or creating stuff.
• Drive: Land and surface vehicles, including cars, boats, and trucks.
• Fight: All kinds of close combat, including weapons or fists.
• Fix: Repairing things.
• Fly: Piloting air vehicles or spacecraft.
• Focus: Concentrating on something, to study or steel your will or whatever.
• Influence: Making others do, think, act, or feel the way you want them to.
• Know: General knowledge and recall. Use specialties to cover specific areas: Business, Navigation, Religion, Animals, Fine Arts, etc. Know always includes a free specialty of the player’s choice.
• Labor: Carrying out tasks of manual labor, lifting, pushing, digging, pulling, hauling.
• Move: Running, jumping, climbing trees.
• Notice: Spotting, sensing, or hearing things.
• Operate: Using things like computers, gadgets, and devices.
• Perform: Acting, putting on a show.
• Shoot: Guns, big rocket launchers, things that you point and shoot.
• Sneak: Sneaking around. Sneakily.
• Survive: Surviving in the outdoors or wherever.
• Throw: Throwing things.
• Treat: Taking care of people. Heal, treatment of injury, but also counseling.
• Trick: Deceiving or conning somebody, sleight of hand, using spin.

Rating Skills

All PCs have a ranking in each skill. A lack of training is represented by a 4. Proficiency and expertise are represented by ratings between 6 and 12. Most characters start with 12 points (roughly equal to ⅔ the number of skills in the skill list) to put into skills’ die ratings, with one point stepping up a die by one step; some or all of these points may be predetermined by character creation options such as archetypes or pathways.

• d4: Untrained. You have no idea what you’re doing, and you’re likely to create trouble when you try it, but who knows.
• d6: Competent. Sufficient training to get by. You’re comfortable doing this.
• d8: Expert. Able to do this for a living. This is second nature to you.
• d10: Master. One of the best in the field. Likely known to others who possess the skill.
• d12: Grandmaster. One of the best in the world. Known even to those outside the field.

[Ceberskie]

Exactly so the traits just carry the skills as part of the background

 

[Rob4ix]

7 hours ago, Ceberskie said:

And when you say harm you mean attack? In whatever form the character is able to?

When i say harm, i mean attacking, grappling, tying up, pushing and similar

[Rob4ix]

2 hours ago, Ceberskie said:

Exactly so the traits just carry the skills as part of the background

 

Yeah, but when you use just traits, player has to badically dance around those traits to be decent at things, thus kinda forcing players to become specialists, like barbarian that deals extra damage to goblins, because otherwise they will not get even 2 dice to perform a roll in other roll, unless you just make d4 the default die and traits just upgrade them, but even then, when player performs other actions, like same barbarian trying to lift a rock, his roll would still be primarily d4s, i think skills could help with this problem, because player then could both make a specialist and a general characters, because everyone then gets ability to do decent rolls and use whatever traits. Like for example i wanna make a witch anthro goat character, but with just traits id be spending half of points on making witch be playable and not have every second roll have only one die.

[IsabellaRose]

On 07/08/2024 at 01:18, Rob4ix said:

Yeah, but when you use just traits, player has to badically dance around those traits to be decent at things, thus kinda forcing players to become specialists, like barbarian that deals extra damage to goblins, because otherwise they will not get even 2 dice to perform a roll in other roll, unless you just make d4 the default die and traits just upgrade them, but even then, when player performs other actions, like same barbarian trying to lift a rock, his roll would still be primarily d4s, i think skills could help with this problem, because player then could both make a specialist and a general characters, because everyone then gets ability to do decent rolls and use whatever traits. Like for example i wanna make a witch anthro goat character, but with just traits id be spending half of points on making witch be playable and not have every second roll have only one die.

With Cortex, you always include Distinctions + 2 other trait sets so you will always have 2, often 3 dice to include in a roll.

Distinctions are like Aspects in Fate. I ran a pretty free-form Cortex fantasy game where I just worked with each player on their character concept and their Distinctions ended up being one that sort of stood in for their class, one that worked as their background training, and one that was their cultural upbringing. When they wanted to specialize in something related to their Distinction, we added an SFX to the Distinction.

Example:

Tirananniel the Mystic Elven Archer

• d8 Distinction: Elf of the Lóthimladien Forest
  • Hinder: Gain a PP when you switch out this Distinction's d8 for a d4.
  • Spend a PP to reroll a die when you are one with the forest/nature.
• d8 Distinction: Apprentice of Curinir the Wizard
  • Hinder: Gain a PP when you switch out this Distinction's d8 for a d4.
  • Add a d6 to Trouble to step up your Magic die in a contest.
• d8 Distinction: Elven Archer of the Meithistanómë School
  • Hinder: Gain a PP when you switch out this Distinction's d8 for a d4.
  • Spend a PP to step up your Effect die when you use precision aiming skills with your bow.

So when Tirananniel faced a challenge, you could almost always find a way to include one of her Distinctions. Sometimes one of your Distinctions is a hindrance to your cause (example - in a town that dislikes elves, you would have a hard time if you were an "Elf of the Lóthimladien Forest". In that case you'd use the Hinder move, which would increase your chances of rolling a Hitch (a 1 which the GM can use to trigger something bad) but also earn you a Plot Point. 

Interpret the use your distinctions liberally - if you face a test where you're dealing with the King and you need to use the proper etiquette, you could use your "Elf of the Lóthimladien Forest" distinction assuming the elves are gracious and have their own rules of etiquette, or your "Apprentice of Curinir the Wizard" distinction assuming that you learned proper etiquette while serving the wizard.

 

So in your Barbarian example above, one of the Distinctions would be something like Barbarian of the Rock Clan which they'd include along with their Strength and possibly a relevant Skill or Role, depending on what trait sets are in use.

 

Basically, when building your Cortex build, you just need to make sure that at least 2 of the trait sets can be used in every roll. I generally build so you can usually select 3 traits.

[Rob4ix]

I honestly think  this would be very interesting, but i am not too sure, what we could combjne this with, i would 

16 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

With Cortex, you always include Distinctions + 2 other trait sets so you will always have 2, often 3 dice to include in a roll.

Distinctions are like Aspects in Fate. I ran a pretty free-form Cortex fantasy game where I just worked with each player on their character concept and their Distinctions ended up being one that sort of stood in for their class, one that worked as their background training, and one that was their cultural upbringing. When they wanted to specialize in something related to their Distinction, we added an SFX to the Distinction.

Example:

Tirananniel the Mystic Elven Archer

• d8 Distinction: Elf of the Lóthimladien Forest
  • Hinder: Gain a PP when you switch out this Distinction's d8 for a d4.
  • Spend a PP to reroll a die when you are one with the forest/nature.
• d8 Distinction: Apprentice of Curinir the Wizard
  • Hinder: Gain a PP when you switch out this Distinction's d8 for a d4.
  • Add a d6 to Trouble to step up your Magic die in a contest.
• d8 Distinction: Elven Archer of the Meithistanómë School
  • Hinder: Gain a PP when you switch out this Distinction's d8 for a d4.
  • Spend a PP to step up your Effect die when you use precision aiming skills with your bow.

So when Tirananniel faced a challenge, you could almost always find a way to include one of her Distinctions. Sometimes one of your Distinctions is a hindrance to your cause (example - in a town that dislikes elves, you would have a hard time if you were an "Elf of the Lóthimladien Forest". In that case you'd use the Hinder move, which would increase your chances of rolling a Hitch (a 1 which the GM can use to trigger something bad) but also earn you a Plot Point. 

Interpret the use your distinctions liberally - if you face a test where you're dealing with the King and you need to use the proper etiquette, you could use your "Elf of the Lóthimladien Forest" distinction assuming the elves are gracious and have their own rules of etiquette, or your "Apprentice of Curinir the Wizard" distinction assuming that you learned proper etiquette while serving the wizard.

 

So in your Barbarian example above, one of the Distinctions would be something like Barbarian of the Rock Clan which they'd include along with their Strength and possibly a relevant Skill or Role, depending on what trait sets are in use.

 

Basically, when building your Cortex build, you just need to make sure that at least 2 of the trait sets can be used in every roll. I generally build so you can usually select 3 traits.

I think this would be really clean and simple with traits and attributes, because in the result we get:

Basic stat dice, which represent your character's physical, mental or social abilities and/or limits. (Tho i think attributes could be Body, Brains, Social and Special)

Three character-defining aspects, that also give some sort of gameplay beyond "roll to do anything"

Minor or major oddities that character has and make character even more unique.

 

Also, the way you formated abilities from distinctions made me think of Lumen SRD, where abilities also had modifiers, which you could activate for extra resource, i would kinda love to add similar thing too, but ig ceberskie already has head full with GM stuff

Edited August 8 by Rob4ix

[IsabellaRose]

My personal favorite way to use Cortex is the Dramatic version they pioneered in the Smallville RPG and then updated in the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide. It really only works well with a core group of characters who move around the same basic locations, like you would on a TV show like Smallville. You don't have abilities at all, you have Values and Relationships. For more traveling adventures with lots of new NPCs like you see in a D&D type game, I don't know that Relationships would world, but you could still do Values. That way when your character acts, they use the closest associated Value. The default lost of Values is Duty, Glory, Justice, Love, Power and Truth. You can always find a reason to include one of those in your roll!

 

My Cortex D&D clone used Distinctions, Attributes, and Skills with Specializations.

My Attributes were Body, Social, Mind, Spirit. You received skills based on your Distinctions and could buy a set number of skills when you started. I used the Skill/Specialty split from the Prime handbook:

Skill and Specialty Split

With this mod, characters have general skills at a rating of d4 (Untrained) or d6 (Competent), but to have higher ratings they must specialize. Ratings of d8 (Expert), d10 (Master), and d12 (Grandmaster) are only available for specialties of that skill, and a character may have multiple specialties at different die ratings.

• Mary Rose is running a game where the general skill of Drive only goes as high as d6 and requires her players to focus on a specialty such as Motorcycles to have a d8 or higher. Adam’s Hero might end up with Drive d6 (Speed Boat d8, Motorcycles d10, Drift Cars d10).
   
• Using this mod, you don’t add both the skill and the specialty to the dice pool. Your character’s specialty replaces the skill die rating, which you continue to use for all tests and contests where your specialties don’t apply.

This mod emulates the way skills work in Classic Cortex games and is a good option if you want to encourage many high-rated but narrow skills.

[Ceberskie]

I like the idea of specializations as a part of the skill pyramid that Rob mentioned as a way to allocate specialties. You can do anything with a d4 roll and you're allotted a certain amount of d6,8,10,12 in a pyramid as derived from your vocation. Distinctions can be something you get in character creation to provide additional skills and customization seperate from vocations as well as certain vocations having access to special distinctions. 

 

[Warning]

With how complicated this all sounds like, this is where I wonder... Can someone who has no real experience with DND be able to understand this roleplay? There is a lot of things I've never seen before just in these last posts alone. A completely new rpg system to me. I'm afraid I won't even understand even half of things being said. It's cool, though.

[Ceberskie]

It's all good homie I really have to sit down and read through the core book to understand what they're talking about as nearly all of my DM experience is in DnD so I'm learning as I go as well. But the goal is to make a very simple but fun system to RP with which cortex (the system were using) does very well it's just alot to wrap your head around when you're setting up the system which is why I was hoping a conversation like this would come up so someone else can wrap my head around how the system would play out for me haha thanks @IsabellaRose and @Rob4ix

 

Edited August 8 by Ceberskie

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

Gotta love those growing pains lol Cortex is a bit confusing to me too. I've only ever played Cortex maybe 3 times in games that didn't last. Most of my experience is D&D, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, and modified Double XX. 

It was a lot of fun those times though even as someone more used to number crunching.